The World in a Grain: A Conversation with Vince Beiser

Did you know that after water and air, sand is our most consumed natural resource—even more than oil? Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt’s pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the skyscrapers above our heads to the sidewalks beneath our feet, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It’s the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives, and our future. And, incredibly, we’re running out of it. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser explores the compelling true story of this hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day—the people who mine it, sell it, build with it, and sometimes even kill for it. His latest book, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization is a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention.
From the United States to remote corners of India, from world-changing innovators, to murderous sand pirates, join  Vince as he delves into the human and environmental costs of our dependence on sand.
 
Vince Beiser is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Wired, Harper's, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Los Angeles.